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Interview with Donald Ray Pollock
Photo by Patsy Pollock
Most of us never heard of it leave alone visited it. It‘s somewhere in Ohio. But when you read Pollocks novels it seems like you‘ve always been there and always will be. Great storytelling by one of the most promising writers these days. Donald Ray Pollock gives us a brief look inside his mind…
LV: Where did you find your characters for The Devil All the Time, especially Arvin Russell? DRP: At the risk of sounding like a simpleton, I really can't answer that question. I mean, I know they come from my imagination, but I can't explain how or why that happens. I just keep typing and hope to be surprised. That's one of the mysteries of the creative process, at least for me. LV: When I read The Devil All the Time, it really knocked me off the chair. How would you describe the process of writing the book? When did it start in your head? DRP: At first, I was just going to write a novel about two serial killers, but then decided that I needed a more sympathetic character to hold the book together, and that's when I came up with Arvin. The only thing I knew for certain is that they had to meet up eventually. I began by writing a very sloppy first draft, just to have something to work with, and several of the other characters, such as Roy and Theodore, came about during later revisions. 14 I work slow, so it took me approximately two years to put it together.